Hillary Clinton tunes out the trolls in Facebook forum

Updated 1:54 am, Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Photo: Lenny Ignelzi, Associated Press

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

FILE - This June 25, 2014, file photo shows former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaking in San Diego. There may be more to that "we the people" notion than you thought.These are boom times for the concept of "corporate personhood." Corporations are people? Mitt Romney got mocked during the 2012 presidential campaign for the very idea. But it turns out the principle has been lurking in U.S. law for more than a century, and the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave it more oomph this week when it ruled that certain businesses are entitled to exercise religious rights just as do people. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File) less

FILE - This June 25, 2014, file photo shows former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaking in San Diego. There may be more to that "we the people" notion than you thought.These are boom times for the ... more

Photo: Lenny Ignelzi, Associated Press

Hillary Clinton tunes out the trolls in Facebook forum

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The difference between online public forums and in-person public forums made itself jaw-droppingly clear Monday when Hillary Rodham Clinton threw herself out to the wide world on Facebook for a question-and-answer session.

The former first lady and secretary of state, usually surrounded by handlers at live events, found herself peppered in the Internet universe with questions about her breast size, sex habits, and whether she'd rather fight a horse or a duck.

Amid the bilge were plenty of serious, sometimes erudite queries on Israel, the Citizens United ruling and abortion rights - many of which the possible 2016 presidential candidate answered carefully and without making news.

On Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. prison for suspected Islamic militants? "I supported closing it," Clinton wrote. On abortion? "We need to continue the fight to give women the right to choose."

She said she'd consider working to overturn the Citizens United ruling, the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave corporations wider rights to contribute to campaigns. And she agreed with President Obama that Russian President Vladimir Putin bears some responsibility for last week's downing of a Malaysian jet in Ukraine.

Pet-friendly

On the lighter side, Clinton said she lets her three dogs jump up on the sofa.

And there was plenty of outright fawning from commenters: "Can't wait to vote for you to be President Clinton!"

But the insults and foolishness stood out in the 353 comments and questions rolling into the half-hour forum on Clinton's book-tour Facebook page, conducted live from Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters.

The forum was conducted during Clinton's tour promoting her book "Hard Choices" - a tour generally seen as a way to keep Clinton's profile prominent in preparation for a 2016 presidential run.

"This book tour is a mini-launch for a presidential campaign, and practice for a presidential campaign," Goldstein said. "This is spring training for her."

Twitter visit

Later in the day, Clinton stopped by Twitter's San Francisco headquarter for a session that contrasted with the troll-laden Facebook chat.

As Clinton sat before an audience of Twitter employees, a company manager brokered queries from a range of people, including actress Amy Poehler and Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani women's rights activist who survived a Taliban assassination attempt. The live setting eliminated snark, but the biggest laugh line came from Clinton herself - about enduring snark as a woman in politics.

"If a woman wants to be in the public arena, she needs to grow skin as thick as the hide of a rhinoceros," she said. "And I have certainly, as you can tell, had to learn how to do that - and there's a lot of good moisturizers I can tell you about if you're interested."